The Science of the Soul
by phoenixreal
Summary: Urahara is a scientific genius, and his ex partner Aizen is just as much a genius. However, Aizen is twisted and likes to use human subjects. An old experiment in genetics begins to show some problems and there is a rush to solve them, or lose all those involved. Bad summery but not sure where heading. UraharaXIchi is the main pairing. Eventually.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: So yeah, too many ideas. I feel like if I don't get the beginnings on the screen they'll fade away. So don't think this is good, but its going to be a UraharaXIchi one if it goes as planned, but my fics sometimes get away from me. Anyway, if you like, let me know and I'll continue._

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**Chapter One: Three Kidnappings **

"Oh dear!" the man in the striped hat said with a frown. The hat shaded his eyes, but if it hadn't, a knit brow would have been definite underneath there. In front of him, his current experiment had exploded. Again. He sighed. Such was his luck. He tapped his stubbly chin and looked around. What would help make it more stable? He scratched his head. Well, maybe some tea would help. He headed up the stairs into the tea room. He looked out the window. Sometimes he forgot how high up he was in this building. The view of the moderately sized city of Karakura Town was magnificent. The sun was just going down. He smiled. Ah well.

"Kisuke?" came a questioning voice from behind him. He turned to see a thin man with garishly pink hair and square wire framed glasses.

"Szayel! How are you? I know you missed yesterday due to your brother being ill, yes?" Kisuke said smiling at the young man.

The man smiled. "Yeah, Ilfort's doing okay now. But I was wondering if the experiment was going well? The serum?"

Kisuke frowned, and sighed. "I can't keep it stable. And if it isn't stable, it's no good."

"What are we going to do if we can't stabilize it? We're almost out of time, you know. And we're not even sure how many we're dealing with…" Szayel said, wringing his hands.

"We've got no choice. If we don't stabilize them…I don't even want to think about it," he said with a frown. "And that includes you and your brother too, you know, Szayel. I don't want to lose either of you."

The pink haired man bit his lip. "But how many were implanted with it? Me, Illfort, Nnoitra, Stark and Lilynette, but how many more?"

"There are some like your brother that won't show any change, but you, Nnoitra and Stark I know will have more difficulties. You were all exposed to more of it that Illfort and Shawlong and those fellows. I'm most worried about the three that were given the highest dosages. I haven't had much luck with them," Kisuke said with a sigh, staring out the window with a frown. It was beginning to rain outside now that sun was down. He needed to find those three quickly. Before it was too late to save them.

Kisuke Urahara thought for a long moment. How did he end up here? How did he end up looking down on the town he'd loved so much instead of being in the middle of it running a simple candy store? Had it really been almost ten years ago that things got so messed up? If the experiments hadn't been taken too far, this would have never happened. Staying in the hypothetical stage and debating with others, that was fine. But when you actually got the idea to start playing God and implementing the ideas, then you had trouble. Like he was having now. He hated even more that the research had been his and then twisted to someone else's use.

In all his thirty-two years, he would have never guessed that he'd be standing here, the head of a multi-billion dollar scientific research facility, founded by him and his former partner. Ah, that former partner. The thought sent a chill down his spine. He wondered what he was doing now. Perhaps ripping apart some other child's gene sequences and splicing into them again? He frowned, an uncharacteristic look on the usually passive faced scientist. Well, more than that, he was a genius. He'd graduated with a doctoral degree at the age of 21 from MIT in Genetics. His partner had been a couple years older, 26, and though still a genius, he had felt threatened by the younger man, feeling his inexperience was a hindrance. But in the end, they worked well together, so it was that they skyrocketed through the scientific community and founded the Seireitei. Considering the work they did with genetics, the name was appropriate.

Ah, his old partner. Sosuke Aizen. Now his only competition. He'd opened his own research facility, Las Noches, a few years ago, but it didn't have the backing that came with the Seireitei. Aizen ended up focusing on genetic modification of animals and crops. But still, Kisuke had to wonder if he had stopped his human experimentation after all. He didn't think he would. He was too driven. And just thinking of the human experiments that had led to him breaking their partnership made Kisuke sick to his stomach.

Kisuke needed to solve this problem. And it wasn't like he hadn't been working on it. But with Illfort and the others suddenly starting to fall ill, he had to do something. But he was most worried about the three that had been experimented on as children. And they shouldn't be hard to find, because after the experiments, they had all acquired some unique physical characterizes. He had a feeling he was going to have to call him muscle on it. And he hated that.

He picked up the phone to call downstairs. "Can you send up Kenpachi and Yachiru?"

He waited. Soon enough the door burst open and a small pink haired ball of energy came bouncing in followed by an enormous man wearing an eye patch and spiky black hair. He wore a simple black shirt and jeans with simple boots. Yachiru was wearing a bright pink skirt and a white shirt with a pair of Mary Janes. He smiled at the two. Never in a million years would he have put these two together, but Kenpachi took care of the young woman like he was her father. No one really knew how they met, but Yachiru had been one of the original test subjects in some early experiments, hence the reason her hair had turned naturally pink. Fortunately for her, that had been the only outcome of the genetic manipulation.

"Kenpachi, I need you to track down these three. These are pictures of them at the ages of 8, 9, and 11. They are now ten years older. It is imperative that you locate all three and bring them here as soon as you can," he said. "Be careful and don't count on the obvious, any one of them may have altered their appearance to cover up their unique characteristics."

Kenpachi looked over the files, Yachiru looking over his broad shoulder at them. She clung to his back like some kind of spider. "What if they don't wanna come?" Yachiru asked.

"There's no choice, if we don't find them soon, they may all die, or worse, take a few people with them," Kisuke said with a sigh.

"Got it, Urahara-sama. How long do I have?" Kenpachi said, fixing him with his one eyed glare.

Kisuke smirked. "I needed them last week."

-University Campus—

He was wet and he hated to be wet. Really he did, but he'd forgotten his umbrella again. He ducked under an awning. He looked to see he was standing beside a shivering man who was also waiting out the rain. He looked down at the small man, and the man quickly left. The taller man snorted. So he was tall, and big, at 6'1", and he had blue hair. That generally put most people off. But he didn't care. If they didn't like him, that was tough. He beat the crap out of anyone that dared say anything to him.

He was leaning aganst the post when a girl came walking up to him, and he did a double take. She had pink hair. She was short, really short, but she had a broad smile.

"Hey, I like your hair!" she said cheerily, not seeming to mind that she looked like a drowned rat.

He grudgingly returned the smile. "Yah, yers ain't too bad yerself, kid."

"Can you come with me, huh? I'd really like it if you could, I could use some help?" she questioned.

He quirked an eyebrow. "What in the world for, its pouring rain?"

"Flat tire, and I gotta get home!" she said with a frown.

He shook his head and grumbled under his breath, but followed the short girl up to the road. When they got to her car, well, van really, he frowned as there was no flat tire. He turned to say something and found himself looking up at a giant of a man.

"Sorry," said the girlish voice and he looked over just in time to see her plunge a needle in his arm. For a minute he has time to wonder what the hell is happening and then the world fades away.

-Midtown—

He was wandering, as he often did at night. No reason really. He wears a black hoodie and covers his extremely pale skin. He would be classified as albino by most, but he had the most piercing green eyes. He wore a lot of black too. No real reason again. He walked through the rain, wishing he had remembered a raincoat or an umbrella. But oh well. He ducked into a convenience store.

He scanned the shelves impassively. Nothing really interested him. Interestingly, nothing ever really interested him. He grabbed a pack of crackers and a soda from the fridge and went up to pay for them. He looked around but did not see the cashier, and he wondered briefly where he could have gone.

"Hello? I would like to purchase a couple items!" he said loudly. There was no answer.

He turned around nearly running into a man over a foot taller than he was. The man looked down at him with a grin.

"Can I help you?" he asked softly, his face belying no emotion at the sight of a man so much larger than he.

The man nodded and pointed out to his van. "Need a flat changed."

He looked out. "Well, I'm sure you are suited to such tasks than I am. I am on the small side, and I am afraid I am not very strong compared to a man such as yourself."

The man looked irritated, and he looked over his shoulder. To the green eyed man's surprise a pink haired girl popped up. His face, however, was impassive as ever.

"Please, mister, I'm so cold and wet out there!"

He shook his head. "I can call someone to help you," he began, pulling out a phone. Then the large man grabbed his wrist. He looked up in time to see the pink haired girl lean over and stab him with a syringe. He looked up and felt slightly dizzy. And then it seemed that sleep claimed him.

-University campus—

"Damn!" he muttered as he sloshed through puddles on his way to his dorm. Why'd it have to downpour right as he got out of his only night class? He made it into the dorm hall and headed up to his room that he shared with his friend Kiego. He brushed his bright orange bangs out of his face. He saw the Kiego wasn't in yet. Oh well, probably found some female companionship for the night. He started peeling off his wet clothes and grabbed a towel from his closet when he heard a knock on the door. He frowned, wondering if Kiego had left his dumb keys again.

He opened it and looked down to see a young girl with pink hair smiling at him. "What? Hey, who are you?"

He clutched the towel tightly around his waist. She smiled sweetly. "Can you help me?"

"Um, well, I would but I kinda need to get dressed, why don't you ask the resident down the hall?" he said, knitting his orange colored brows together. "Um, hang on, okay?"

He rubbed his head as he grabbed a pair of boxers and slipped them on, and was grabbing for his jeans when the door slammed open and instead of a pink haired girl there was a massively large man standing there glowering at him.

"Um, what, who?" he stammered stepping back.

"I'm tired of waitin'. Yer commin' with us," he said matter of factly.

Extremely self conscious he shook his head and tried to back up. "What?" he managed before the guy had grabbed him roughly by the hair making him hiss in pain.

"Um, Keni, I lost the other syringe…" the pink haired girl said with a pouty face from beside him.

The large man looked at him. "Do I knock him out?"

"Keni, I don't think that would be good, just cover grab him and let's get out of here. Here, this will work!" she said, grabbing a tie off the table and tying his hands together with incredible speed. Then she grabbed another one from Kiego's dresser and gagged him with it. She stepped back and admired her work. "There we go!"

And then before he knew it, he was hefted up and over the huge man's shoulder, his muffled complaints going unnoticed by him. He tried kicking only to have his feet held down. He finally managed to reach out enough to bang against a door though, and he felt a flood of relief when it opened to see his friend Tatsuki's head pop out. He locked eyes with her and reached out. She gasped and wasn't sure what to do.

"Ichigo!" she called out reflexively, making the large man turn around and look at her. He smirked and waved as he continued, carrying the struggling man over his back.

Within minutes she was on the phone reporting the apparent kidnapping, and watched as from the window as he was tossed in the back of a white van with no plates on it.

The jarring bounce when he hit the floor on the back of the van he'd been dumped in, made him cry out a little when his head hit the ground. Before he could think they were moving, and rolled over to find himself face to face with an unconscious figure with blue hair. He franticly looked the other way to see another male, this one with black hair but pallid white skin. He tried to scoot away from them but there was nowhere to go. He couldn't get his hands untied and his mouth was sore. Soon enough, they'd stopped, and he saw the door open and the huge man come back with a grin. He tried to scoot back, only to be yanked out by his ankle. He was tossed over one of his shoulders, and he picked the blue haired man up and tossed him over the other.

To his surprise, the pink haired girl, petite as she was, jumped in the back and grabbed the other pale fellow. She was incredibly strong. He was along for the ride so he tried to examine his surroundings. But he had no idea where he was. Soon, they were in some kind of underground garage and into an elevator. They walked down a long plain corridor, and then he heard a door open and he was flopped down on a bed. There were three beds in the room, and the other two were also placed on them. The big man smirked, and left with the pink haired girl. He jumped up and tried the door with his tied hands but it was most definitely locked.

He slunk back over and sat down on the bed. This sucked. And they didn't untie him either. It seemed like forever before the blue haired guy started to stir. Ichigo had been laying on the bed, unable to do much else while he waited. He looked over as he sat up groggily and looked around. He then blinked and stared at the mostly naked man in the room with him gagged and tied at the wrist. Ichigo sat up and held his hands out toward him, hoping he got the hint.

The blue haired guy frowned then looked around. He reached over and tried to yank the knot out but found it too tight. He frowned and moved closer and it took a few minutes of cussing under his breath before he got it untied. As soon as he did, Ichigo sighed then reached up to get the gag out, but found he couldn't get the knot out of that either. He groaned in frustration because his mouth really hurt.

"Tch, lemme see," the bluenette said and Ichigo turned and soon enough his gag was gone.

Ichigo sighed in relief and franticly rubbed the sore corners of his mouth. "Oh god, thank you."

"What the hell is going on?" the heard from the third bed, as the pale fellow sat up. He had incredible green eyes.

"No idea, big freaking guy came to my dorm and dragged me out," Ichigo said slowly, then glanced down. "I guess I should be happy I got on shorts before he grabbed me."

"I was helping some pink haired girl with a flat, and then she stabbed me with a needle," the blue haired one said.

The pale one nodded. "Yes, he said something about a flat, then that pink haired one stabbed me. Why were you not stabbed with a needle too?"

Ichigo sighed. "She said she dropped it, so I got lucky and tied up instead. Name's Ichigo, by the way," he said softly.

"Grimmjow," the blue haired ones said and they both looked to the green eyed guy.

He nodded acknowledgement. "Ulquiorra."

They sat in silence for a bit. What more could they do?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two **

**Cutting to the Chase**

Urahara stared at the monitors. All three of them were here, finally. He was actually quite surprised that Aizen hadn't gotten to them first. He had expected it. And it had been far too easy for Kenpachi and Yachiru to manage it. Luckily, he'd only had one 911 call to intercept, and it had been from the last one when Yachiru had misplaced the last sedative syringe. That girl, he thought shaking his head. Oh well, at least everything had been in place. It reminded him how valuable his small group of people was to him. The thought of any of them dying was unacceptable, and he was going to do everything possible to stop that. If it wasn't for the stupid Hogyuku formula, none of this had happened. And he'd been the one to invent the damn thing.

If he still had it, he could try and correct this mess. But Aizen had stolen the formula. And because Urahara had worked so hard to keep it out of other hands, he had split the formula into two pieces that had to be laid together over a light table to see the whole thing. He had a copy of one half but not the other. And he had been so careful to keep the thing that way, even down to his closest associates.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the serum the formula created was stable. There was an ingredient, though, that he had a hard time finding when he made the first batch to test. Aizen held the secret to that in the half of the formula he possessed. So, here he was, experimenting with a highly volatile serum to try and correct the changes in the very DNA of these people. He was realizing slowly that the changes were permanent, and no amount of trying to change that was helping. So instead, he was having to settle on the next best thing. Stabilization.

He was almost there. The Hogyuku serum naturally tried to stabilize itself. But when combined with the DNA of something non-human, it tended to want to recode the entire gene sequence if it wasn't stopped. His original subjects, Yachiru, Kenpachi, and all from that group, only suffered minor cosmetic changes, with a few deeper alterations to their physical bodies. Kenpachi was unnaturally strong and had grown in height and girth. Yachiru had stayed the size of a child and her hair had turned pink, but she gained incredible speed and dexterity. After that, he decided that human experimentation was treading on the ethics, and he set about working with animals. Perhaps that was when things went wrong, when Aizen got the idea of mixing animal DNA with the Hogyuku serum to see where the alterations went.

He did it so secretively; it wasn't until he walked in on a group of three young boys in the testing room. Aizen had come in with a chart and found Urahara looking at him. They'd argued about what he was doing, Aizen claiming that they were perfect test subjects, and they shouldn't pass up the opportunity. Urahara had prohibited testing on the children, to which Aizen had informed him it was too late for that, the testing was finished and they were being sent home. He found out that there were many others he had tested on. It was that point he'd banned his partner, and closest friend, from him. He went without a fight, and it was only weeks later Urahara realized he'd stolen half the Hogyuku formula.

That had been forever ago. So long. He looked up as Szayel came in, his pink hair pulled back, he looked flushed.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked. Szayel shook his head.

"Kisuke, I don't know, Ilfort is getting worse. The DNA is starting to rewrite faster. He's going to transform…into something…and I don't know what to do. He's my older brother, and I really hate him for draggin me into this, but I don't want him to die like this," he said, pushing his silver square-framed glasses up his nose.

Urahara nodded. "Bull DNA was what he was injected with, wasn't it?"

Szayel nodded. "Yeah, he's one of the weakest ones, so I think that's why his sequence is being overtaken."

"Well, I have the three down there I've been searching for. Maybe they'll shed some light on what Aizen was doing," he said looking at the monitor. He'd have to take the orange headed one some clothes, it looked like Kenpachi had pulled him out of his dorm in his underwear.

"Well, no more putting it off. Szayel, give him the sedatives I gave you. I've already had to sedate three of the others, Mila Rose, Sun Sun, and Apachi. Hal is beside herself, but I had no choice. You go take care of your brother. I've got to get some blood from these three for testing," Urahara said, putting items on a cart.

Szayel was about to leave. "Will you need some help, they don't look like they'll be easy if they don't prove sympathetic to your words."

"I doubt they will, they were basically kidnapped and brought here. They won't comply easily. I'd sedate them if I could but I don't want any drugs in their system for the testing they need. I'll have Keni and Yachiru help. You worry with the others," he said, pressing a button to alert the aforementioned.

He headed down the hall and stopped outside the doorway to the white room inside. He'd been here too often. Before long, the hulking Kenpachi came up with Yachiru on his shoulder. Behind him, the taller, but thinner, Nnoitra followed.

"Thought you might need some help, Kisuke," he said mildly, grinning as always. "Six arms are better than two if Kenpachi had trouble with these boys."

"You know I'd prefer you not use that ability, we're not entirely sure what DNA caused that sequence, you know," Urahara said with a sigh as Nnoitra concentrated and two additional sets of arms ripped through his clothes.

"But I love it! Just promise when you stabilize this shit I get to keep the extra arms!" he said, a gleam in his eyes.

Kisuke sighed. "And I need to find some clothes that will work better, or Uryu is going to skin you, he's tired of fixing your clothes."

He was treated with a smile, and he opened the door to find all three boys leaning back against the wall on their bed. All three jumped to their feet in obvious defensive stances when he pushed the small cart in.

"Hello, I figure I should come and introduce myself and explain what is happening," he said, smiling and adjusting the green and white bucket hat he wore.

"Who the fuck are you?" asked the blue haired one. Grimmjow, if he remembered right.

He smiled. "Are you going to cooperate as I run some tests or do I need to have you all restrained?"

The three boys glanced at each other. "Like hell you're getting near me again!" the orange haired one said frowning.

Urahara sighed, he figured as much. "Nnoi, Keni, take care of it."

When Kenpachi entered with his pink haired charge they all tightened but then seeing a black haired guy, actually taller than the freaky spike headed guy, but he had six arms. Keni nodded toward Ichigo and the six armed fiend had him, one arm aournd his neck, one around his waist, two more holding his wrists down, and the last one just hovering to the side. Keinpachi leaped and put the blue haired one in a head lock and Yachiru leaped over and tackled the green eyed one to sit on his back on top of the bed. All three were effectively immobilized.

"Ichigo, I believe, is your name?" the blonde with the hat said, coming over to him first. He struggled but there was no way with six hands on him he could even move an inch.

"Kisuke, this fucker's strong for a skinny bitch, man," Nnoitra said, grinning. "Can I fight with him later?"

Urahara shook his head, seeing the gleam in his one eye. "Nnoitra, not yet, he's not even to the point that he'll be able to fight with you or Keni yet." He saw the frown on the taller man's face. "Don't worry I'm sure you can spar with him plenty once he awakens."

Ichigo's mind was a blur. "Wh-what is happening? What's going on? Wh-what do you mean awaken?"

Urahara placed a hand on his shoulder. "I assure you, Ichigo, no one here is going to hurt you. And if all three of you cast your mind back, I'm sure I will seem familiar in some way. We've met before, but you were children then."

Ichigo stilled suddenly, actually recognizing the face, that messy blond hair, the soft comforting voice. "You-you were there…when that man…he…he…"

His eyes were wide and he started shaking uncontrollably, memories that had been locked into his mind for such a long time. They were things he didn't want to remember. Things that made appearances in his nightmares, but disappeared when he woke up in the morning and he was so glad of it. But now, everything was crashing into him like a flood.

_ "It's okay, Ichi, it's okay. The pain will be over in a minute."_

_ His body arched against the cold steel table under his naked body. It strained and he screamed. His whole soul was being ripped apart and reshaped, and he could feel every moment of it. He wanted to pass out, but he couldn't, every nerve on fire, every muscle exploding._

_ "Shh, it will be over soon, sweet Ichi. The serum takes a couple hours to complete this particular transformation, but the results will be well worth it, despite the pain you're in right now. It will be over soon."_

_ Time crawled by, too slow, and he was still screaming, but now there was blood running from his lips because he'd screamed so much his throat was bleeding. He couldn't stop, there was no relief, just incredible crashing pain that was doubling as it went. His wrists and ankles were so cut that there was a constant drip of blood in the room from the table._

_ "I'm so sorry for the pain, but it has to be. What I'm doing to you, I haven't tried this with the others, so I'm hoping you live through it. The results either way will be worth it, whether you live or not. The other two children worked well, but I've changed it since I did their injections. Now it is all about you, the rest can crawl in a corner and die, but you…"_

_ Eventually the pain left, but by then he was too exhausted to notice. The shackles were undone from his ankles and wrists, and they weren't bleeding anymore, like they'd healed. He heard the brown haired man cluck and scribble notes as he laid there._

Ichigo came back to reality to see Urahara drawing blood from his arm, two of the six arms holding his arm so he could do it. He started fighting again, the hands on his arm gripping tighter.

"No, no, no, not again, not again…" he muttered.

Urahara looked up with pain in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ichigo, I'm trying to fix what he did to you, if it helps, I'm sorry."

His eyes were frightened and large as he tried to backpedal into the body that held him. "Lemme go, lemme get out, get out, I can't do this again…not like that…"

Urahara sighed and filled a syringe with something from a vial. "I'm sorry, I have to do this, I can't let you get so worked up, things might happen too fast."

Ichigo jerked his whole body, or tried to, as Urahara injected him with something that made him first get dizzy then very relaxed as he slipped into the ironlike grip that held him.

"Don't hurt me anymore," he whispered as his eyes slipped closed. Urahara sighed, patting him on the arm.

"I won't, Ichigo, I won't." He looked up at Nnoi, eyes grateful. "Put him to his bed, and put these on him, please," he said, handing him a set of clothes. Nnoitra smiled, letting his four extra arms recede and then set about dressing the boy.

He then turned to the other two. "Will you please let me draw blood, Grimmjow?"

Behind him, the grip tightened and one of his arms was forcibly extended. He growled. "I don't fuckin' recognize you, bastard, and I don't know these other two."

"It's okay," he said, setting to draw the blood quickly. Once he'd taken it he went over to the final one, pinned beneath Yachiru. He wasn't really fighting it too much, however.

"Ulquiorra, can I please take your blood samples?"

He nodded and Yachiru climbed off of him, and he sat up offering his arm.

"You seem familiar, but I have not decided how," he said, watching impassively as he took the blood.

"I believe that your memories should resurface soon enough. Ichigo's experience was more traumatic than either of you, so it is no wonder he would have it flood back when he saw me," he said, glancing over at the now clothed orange headed boy. "I don't know why he needed to use him, perhaps because he was the youngest."

He gathered up the supplies and left quietly, followed by the other four. Ulquiorra and Grimmjow just watched frowning, then glanced over at their roommate.

"Whatever the hell he remembered, I'm not sure I want to remember what happened to me," Ulquiorra said softly.

Grimmjow sighed. "Ain't no shit, man."

The sighed and then realized fresh clothes had been left for both of them. They decided to take the chance to shower and change before sleeping again.


End file.
